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Wednesday, 16 August 2017

The first photos from Game of Thrones season 7’s penultimate episode, “Beyond the Wall”, are here. With last Sunday’s “Eastwatch”, Game of Thrones suddenly re-adjusted the stakes of its seventh season. While the previous four hours had dealt with the budding conflict between the forces led by the Lannisters and those loyal to Daenerys Targaryen, “Eastwatch” contained a sudden reset: the Targaryen side of the conflict is seeking a temporary alliance with their foes, so that both sides can join together against the approaching White Walkers.

As a result, “Eastwatch” ended with a coterie led by Jon Snow – along with Tormund Giantsbane, the returning Gendry, Jorah Mormont, The Hound and other members of the Brotherhood Without Banners – traveling North of the Wall, in order to capture a wight and prove the existence of the White Walker threat to Queen Cersei. Now, with the weekly release of photos from the next episode, fans who have chosen not to view the leaked sixth episode are getting a new look at what we’ll be seen

HBO’s press photos from “Beyond the Wall,” next Sunday’s sixth and penultimate episode of Game of Thrones season 7, give us a look at what we’ll be seeing in the battle to come. Separate from the battle up north, we get a much warmer-looking image of Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys sitting by the fire, most likely still at Dragonstone. North of the Wall, wildling leader Tormund Giantsbane looks ready for battle, though possibly with a hint of fear in his eyes. Jon Snow, beyond the Wall for the first time since his adventures with Ygritte several seasons ago, is shown walking with his team here, including Tormund, Jorah, Thoros of Myr and Gendry.

Jorah Mormont, another man who hasn’t been this far North in quite awhile, stands alone in these “Beyond the Wall” images. Jon is also shown here with Beric Donderrion, another man who has been brought back from the dead by the Lord of Light. There’s also a beautiful shot Tyrion and Daenarys walking the grounds at Dragonstone, situated between two dragons. Meanwhile, at Winterfell, sisters Sansa and Arya Stark confer, possibly about Littlefinger’s machinations in last week’s episode. Finally, another photo shows Sansa reading a letter, possibly the one from last week, alongside Brienne of Tarth.

Missing from the photos is any reference to the Lannisters or King’s Landing; there’s also no hint of Euron Greyjoy, who’s been on the sidelines for a couple of weeks now. However, we do know we’re likely getting a humans/White Walkers battle, as well as movement towards the endgame of the season – and, with just two episodes to go this year and nine overall, the series. Can showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrap up their story in a satisfactory manner, in the limited time remaining?

Apple is going to spend (literally) billions to produce original movie and TV content of its own. While most associate Apple with computers, iPhones, iPods and iPads, the company has also changed how content is distributed, through the iTunes Store, Apple TV and other products that have changed the way people stream and download content. It’s long been in the company’s DNA – cofounder Steve Jobs also cofounded Pixar, and was the largest individual shareholder in Disney at the time of his death in 2011.

In recent years, Apple has begun to make noises about dipping its toe into actual production of content. After all, following all those years of hugely-profitable quarters, Apple is sitting on a cash pile in the hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s always seemed a logical move for Apple to find one more place to compete with Amazon, as well as Netflix and even traditional Hollywood studios. Now, there’s word about exactly how much Apple is willing to invest in that effort.

Apple plans to spend $1 billion in order to “procure and produce original content” over the course of the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal. That amount, according to the piece, is roughly equal to what Amazon spent in 2013, its first year in the original content business, although Netflix is likely to spend $6 billion on its original content slate this year.

Apple’s first forays into its own content, Late Late Show spinoff Carpool Karaoke and the reality show Planet of the Apps, haven’t quite broken through in any meaningful way, although Apple’s original content effort is still very young. It was reported earlier this year that Apple’s original series won’t directly compete with Netflix, at least not yet.

This is a huge development, for a simple reason: Apple has a LOT of money – about $250 billion in cash on hand, as of its latest earnings report. While they’re only spending $1 billion in the first year, the company has the ability to up that investment significantly in the future, should they scale up this effort. That means if they want to pursue a Game of Thrones-like original series that’s super-ambitious and expensive, or get into business with big-name directors, showrunners or actors, or even pursue theatrical releases, they can afford to. They’re now in position to follow the Amazon and Netflix formulas of a few years ago, only with a lot more money at their disposal. There’s been a lot of talk lately about Netflix’s long-term debt; Apple doesn’t have that problem.

The key with this effort, as with most, is that Apple makes the right decisions about which shows and movies to pursue. Of course, Apple is coming into this effort years behind its competition, and there’s no telling what the company’s many Hollywood partners will think about Apple encroaching on their turf. But as we saw with Netflix and Amazon, all it will take for Apple to become a player in this space is one or two big hits.

YouTube star Lilly Singh has hilariously melded together two seemingly disparate current cultural icons in Game of Thrones‘ Night King and Canadian hip-hop/rap superstar Drake. The Night King and his army of dead icicles are very slowly marching upon the Seven Kingdoms in the current season of Game of Thrones and next week’s episode (“Beyond the Wall”) promises to pit a motley crew of brave humans against them, in a mission to capture a White Walker and prove to the people of Westeros once and for all that the threat beyond the wall is real.

YouTube star and comedienne Lilly Singh is well-documented as a Game of Thrones fan and has uploaded several Westeros-themed videos including “If White Walkers Were Teenage Girls” and “If Jon Snow Made A Rap Diss Track” – questions Thrones fans have surely asked themselves at some point. Aside from her comedy, it should be said that Singh’s Night King make-up is startlingly close to the real deal, but the antics she gets up to while having it applied is somehow even more special.

While having an icy makeover for one of her IISuperwomanII channel’s White Walker videos (via GameOfThrones.onHBO), Singh recorded a lip-sync to Drake’s hit song “Passionfruit” – taken from his recent album More Life. Unable to stay still in the make-up chair for long, the Night King soon gets on his feet and introduces some dance moves to proceedings, as you can see below:

The video is both funny and impressive in equal measure, topped off with a huge helping of creepy thanks to the Night King’s sick, strange smile and overly emotive eyes. It’s also very disturbing to see Game of Thrones zombie chief put on an air of seductiveness and approach something resembling sensuality. Maybe if Jon Snow saw this, everyone would just be able to put their differences aside?

Of course, everyone knows that if White Walkers ever did take time off from bringing about the complete and utter destruction of every living creature to listen to some music, the likes of Drake would be nowhere near their playlist. Frankly, it would be a shock if the Night King and his minions listened to anything other than Scandinavian Death Metal.

With that said, Singh’s Drake lip-sync is a joy to behold, both for fans of Game of Thrones and the rapper, although for some viewers, it’ll be difficult to ever look at him in the same way again.

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

“The Lannisters always pay their debts” is the favored catchphrase of what’s currently the dominant House and family in Westeros. However, the dirty secret of the Lannisters – different from the other dirty secret between Queen Cersei (Lena Headey) and her twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), which is more or less common knowledge these days – is that the Lannisters are deeply in debt. For centuries, Casterly Rock and the vast gold deposits in its mines made the Lannisters the wealthiest family in Westeros. The family’s deceased patriarch Tywin (Charles Dance) used that wealth to acquire power and influence, launching a series of events that have resulted in three Lannisters seated upon the Iron Throne, including Cersei, its reigning occupant. However, all of this grasping for ever-more-power came at a literal financial cost: the gold mines of Casterly Rock ran dry years ago and the family coffers are depleted. In short, until this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, the Lannisters were broke.

In a macro sense, the Lannisters’ debts are also the Iron Throne’s debts, and there is no entity the Seven Kingdoms owe more money to than the Iron Bank of Braavos. Located across the Narrow Sea in the Free City of Braavos, the Iron Bank is the most dominant and powerful financial institution in Game of Thrones. Its influence spreads across Westeros, Essos, and the unseen reaches of the known world. What’s more, the Iron Bank has a catchphrase of its own, one that is rightly feared by all indebted to it: The Iron Bank will have its due.

In this week’s episode “The Queen’s Justice,” a rare instance of the Iron Bank coming to collect a debt occurs. The Iron Bank’s primary representative Tycho Nestoris (Mark Gatiss) visits Cersei at King’s Landing to discuss the Crown’s overdue accounts. The financial peril facing the Lannisters manifests across the entire Seven Kingdoms they are trying to secure their dominion over. To understand how the Iron Throne came to owe untold millions of Gold Dragons to the Iron Bank, we have to go back to uncover the gross malfeasance of Cersei’s predecessors.

The legacy of King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) is as a drunken, whoring misanthrope who had no interest in ruling the Seven Kingdoms. He left the actual hard work of running Westeros to his Small Council. Robert’s Master of Coin, Lord Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen) paid for the Crown’s corpulence by borrowing heavily from Tywin Lannister’s fortune. Tywin was more than happy to financially support the Iron Thone, and thus the Seven Kingdoms, since it consolidated his personal power, his grandson Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) was heir to the throne, and his daughter Cersei was the Queen. However, Littlefinger was also secretly borrowing money from the Iron Bank, to the point where the Crown was 6 million Gold Dragons in debt to the Lannisters and to the Bank by the time Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) briefly became Hand of the King. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) discovered the Seven Kingdoms’ financial peril when he assumed the duties of Master of Coin in season 3.

The War of the Five Kings further increased the massive debt the Seven Kingdoms owed to the Iron Bank, worsened by how deeply intertwined the Lannisters’ finances were to the Crown’s. This was further exacerbated by the fact that Tywin, who became Hand of the King at the end of season 2, was guarding the secret that Casterly Rock’s gold mines depleted 3 years prior, and he himself was borrowing money from the Iron Bank to fund the Seven Kingdoms. When Joffrey married Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) and made her Queen, Tywin intended the union between the Houses of Lannister and Tyrell, the second wealthiest House in Westeros, to provide some financial relief. (It’s possible Tywin was plotting to eventually gain control of House Tyrell’s wealth and resources to supplement his own, which Cersei would eventually accomplish.)

By the time Tommen Baratheon (Dean Charles-Chapman) became King, the Crown was even further in debt to the Iron Bank – said to be “a tremendous amount of money.” The Iron Bank called upon the Iron Throne to pay back one-tenth of the money that was owed. The new Master of Coin, Tommen’s father-in-law, Mace Tyrell (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), noted that the Crown only had half of the one-tenth the Iron Bank demanded. Mace was dispatched to Braavos to meet with the Iron Bank and managed to negotiate new terms, but this only delayed full payment of the ever-increasing debt.

A different would-be king of Westeros visited the Iron Bank in season 4. Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) and his Hand Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) called upon the Iron Bank to fund their failing campaign in Westeros. At first rebuffed, Davos convinced the Iron Bank that the Lannisters were unloved by the people, untrustworthy, and incompetent compared to Stannis’ steady hand and true claim to the Iron Throne. The Iron Bank agreed to an arrangement for a provisional loan and Stannis used the influx of funds to finance his campaign to help the Night’s Watch defeat the White Walkers in the Battle of Castle Black. When Stannis died in his foolhardy attempt to siege and take Winterfell from Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), the Iron Bank’s investment went up in smoke.

To Melisandre, death prophecies are no fun unless shared with everyone. Though much happened on this week’s Game of Thrones, the Red Priestess stole the show. She not only succeeded in uniting ice and fire, but she laid the groundwork for several major twists in the final season. Melisandre may not always be the most effective prophet, but you can never fault her for being genuine, especially when her own life is on the line.

In her clifftop conversation with Varys, she revealed that her time in Westeros is short. If she weren’t secretly a decrepit, thousand-year-old woman beneath that magic necklace, we’d say she’s on a suicide run for the Lord of Light. No wonder why she’s been so eager to find her Prince That Was Promised, prematurely anointing Stannis Baratheon and burning his daughter as a sacrifice to R’hllor. She’s been on a mission, one that was destined to end with her death.

That’s dark enough on its own terms, but why must Varys also die? And why is Melisandre including him in her morbid prophecy?

The Spider has kept his cool throughout Game of Thrones. He has crawled through King’s Landing, sparred with Littlefinger, and crept into the court of Daenerys Targaryen unscathed. Through all of his Machiavellian tactics, we have seen Varys panic only twice, and on both occasions, he was in the company of a Red Priestess. In the events leading up to these moments, Varys mocked the ambassadors of R’hllor, spat in the face of their religion, and rejected their services.

During their run-in at the Great Pyramid of Meereen, the Red Priestess Kinvara made mention of the Spider’s most humbling hour: when he was castrated by a sadistic, “second-rate sorcerer.” As Varys’ otherwise stoic face melts into despair, Kinvara twists the blade and asks,

“Do you remember what you heard that night when the sorcerer tossed your parts into the fire? You heard a voice call out from the flames…should I tell you what the voice said? Should I tell you the name of the one who spoke?”

In George R. R. Martin’s A Clash of Kings, Varys gives more detail on this life-altering event. As the sorcerer performed his act of emasculation, he “[chanted] all the while. I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier. The flames turned blue, and I heard a voice answer his call, though I did not understand the words they spoke.”

Sunday, 30 July 2017

Middle-earth: Shadow of War will introduce the first non-white hero ever to appear in the Lord of the Rings world. And in 2014, Monolith Studios brought J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fictional world back to life in a way that fans had never quite seen before, with Shadow of Mordor. The game, which was notable at the time for its coveted Nemesis System, was welcomed with widespread success upon its release, performing well financially, and earning multiple game awards and critical acclaim. However, Monolith is prepping to expand on their work in Shadow of Mordor in every possible way with this year’s follow-up game, Shadow of War.

Whether it be the game’s exciting new Siege Mechanic, more complex Nemesis System (which affects the game’s entire open world as users play, not just the individual Orcs they fight against), expanded world, or improved graphics and weather mechanics – Shadow of War promises to be an even greater step up from its already impressive predecessor. And as such, the anticipation surrounding Shadow of War has been growing appropriately over the past few months.

However, Shadow of War will also be notable for its introduction of the first-ever non-white hero to be featured in Middle-earth, with a new character named, Baranor. While he was only featured briefly in the first trailer for the game as well, Waypoint reports that Baranor will lead The Desolation of Mordor DLC released with the game. And despite the character’s historical value in the world of Middle-earth, Andy Salisbury, a community manager at Monolith, says the studio never felt Baranor’s inclusion was a deliberate choice:

“He will have his own story DLC in The Desolation of Mordor, where you’ll learn all about his story. I’m not sure if we looked at [Baranor’s creation] as a choice, but it was an easy one to make. I don’t think we thought twice about it when we were writing the story and when we wrote Baranor. It was just kind of an obvious character for us to write. We’re obviously very happy to make sure that we give everyone an opportunity to see a character that they love, but I don’t think it was deliberate. It was obvious.”

While the Lord of the Rings franchise remains one of the most beloved fictional properties ever created, Tolkien’s work has come under fire over the years for its lack of any real diverse representation in its characters. A vast majority of the franchise’s human characters are depicted as being Caucasian, while the only human black characters in the story – like the Haradim – are seen siding with the enemies and villains.

So whether it was an intentional choice by Monolith or not, the studio is making history in The Lord of the Rings world with their introduction of Baranor here. Not only will the character play a prominent role in Shadow of War‘s story, but will be at the forefront of one of the game’s DLC expansions, which should only further spotlight his importance in Middle-earth. Now, for many longtime Lord of the Rings fans, this may still be coming as too-little-too-late, but hopefully, Baranor’s inclusion will be just the first step in more diverse representation moving forwards, as Tolkien’s world is further expanded upon across multiple different media platforms in the years to come.

Middle-earth: Shadows of War becomes available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows (via Steam) and the “Play Anywhere” program for Windows 10 (with the Xbox One version) in the U.S. starting October 10, 2017.

Thursday, 27 July 2017

The second trailer for the IT movie adaptation is now online. During a particularly creepy scene in the 1990 TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel IT, Pennywise the Clown (Tim Curry) informs the members of the Losers’ Club that he’s every nightmare they’ve ever had, and is in fact their worst dream come true. For those who experienced Curry’s mesmerizing performance at a young enough age, that quote likely held very true, with Pennywise inspiring a pronounced case of coulrophobia in quite a few of the miniseries’ viewers.

To an extent though, the greatness of Curry’s performance as Pennywise tends to overshadow many of the flaws inherent to the miniseries adaptation, including a low-budget, sometimes cheesy special effects, and content standards that kept many of the most harrowing parts of the book from being adapted fully. As iconic as Curry’s take on Pennywise has come to be, the aforementioned flaws have only contributed to the high levels of anticipation for director Andy Muschetti’s upcoming R-rated theatrical adaptation of IT.

The first IT trailer and other preview footage previously-released has been met with widespread acclaim from both IT diehards and newbies to the cursed town of Derry alike – and the second trailer and exclusive clips shown during the Scarediego event at SDCC did nothing to burst the balloons of hype surrounding Muschetti’s film. Now, Warner Bros. has seen fit to unveil IT‘s second trailer to the public at large, and it’s sure to inspire just as many nightmares as the past glimpses at King’s shape-shifting monster have. Check it out above.

Perhaps most notably, the above trailer provides fans with the best look yet at Muschetti’s interpretation of easily the most well-known scene from the miniseries – and arguably the book as well – that being little Georgie Denborough’s fateful encounter with a sewer-dwelling Pennywise, while out sailing the paper boat made for him by brother Bill. This look also includes the first time Pennywise can be heard speaking in any footage released so far, and his voice should be enough to send a chill down the spine of just about everyone.

Pennywise is also featured in an equally-chilling scene near the end of the trailer, in which Richie Tozier (Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhard) encounters the monster after entering a room populated by creepy clown dolls. Yikes. For anyone still harboring doubts as to whether Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise will be capable of scaring the hell out of audiences, the above trailer should go a long way toward erasing them. In September, the world will stare into IT‘s deadlights once again, and it looks likely that – like Stan Uris – they will want to be there.

Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 2 will hit theaters in December 2019, with Gal Gadot to return and Patty Jenkins in negotiations to direct. Warner Bros. officially launched the DC Extended Universe last spring with the debut of Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Though it wasn’t a hit with critics and inspired a divisive reaction among fans, there were certain elements that excited fans about the future of the DCEU. The second official DCEU entry arrived last summer with David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but it suffered the same poor critical response and divisive audience reaction as Batman V Superman.

The mainly negative narrative surrounding the DCEU noticeably changed with the premiere of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman this summer, which was the first entry in Warner Bros’ superhero universe to be largely well-liked by critics and casual moviegoers. Additionally, Wonder Woman broke box office records, is currently the best performing movie of the Summer 2017 season, and is the second highest grossing DCEU film at the worldwide box office. As such, it was only a matter of time before Warner Bros’ announced a sequel to Wonder Woman, which they did at this past weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con. Now, the studio gives the sequel an official release date.

According to THR, Warner Bros. has set Wonder Woman 2 to open Friday December 13, 2019. Gal Gadot will reprise her role as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman while Jenkins is currently in negotiations to return as director. Gadot originated her role as Wonder Woman in Batman V Superman and will return again later this year in Snyder’s World’s Finest Heroes team-up, Justice League. Meanwhile, Jenkins has been in talks with Warner Bros’ to direct Wonder Woman 2 for some time, and it’s expected she’ll officially sign on once she reaches an agreement with the studio.

In terms of where Wonder Woman 2’s release date fits it into the DCEU, 2018 will only feature one release – James Wan’s Aquaman solo film starring Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry – while 2019 will see Shazam! arrive in April and the Wonder Woman sequel in December. Other dated DCEU films include Cyborg and Green Lantern Corps, which are both expected to arrive in 2020; Warner Bros. also has two other 2020 dates reserved for DCEU entries.

Since Wonder Woman was such a success for Warner Bros. and the DCEU it’s no wonder that they would want to fast-track a sequel, which is currently being written by DC Films’ Geoff Johns. Of course, Warner Bros. has a number of other DCEU movies in the works, some of which were officially announced during the studio’s Comic-Con panel, including The Flash movie – now titled Flashpoint – Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Joss Whedon’s Batgirl, and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Suicide Squad 2.

As for what fans can expect from the Wonder Woman sequel, Chris Pine may return for a film set in the 1980s, though Warner Bros. is keeping official plot details under wraps for now. However, now that Wonder Woman 2 has an official release date, we’ll likely learn more about the production schedule and casting before the movie begins filming in the next year or so.

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Titanic writer-director James Cameron is partnering with NatGeo for a new documentary to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the worldwide blockbuster. While Cameron established himself in Hollywood thanks to monster successes of films like Terminator in 1984, Aliens in 1986, T2: Judgement Day in 1991, and True Lies in 1994, there’s no question that the filmmaker’s 1997’s historically-based adventure drama Titanic elevated his career to a whole new level.

Nominated for 14 Oscars and winning 11, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cameron, Titanic to date still ranks as one of the highest grossing films of all-time with $2.186 billion in global ticket sales; second only to the filmmaker’s 2009 Best Picture Oscar nominee Avatar, which holds the top slot with $2.778 billion in box office receipts.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of Titanic on Dec. 19, 1997, Cameron is teaming with NatGeo for a retrospective one-hour documentary on the film. According to EW, the documentary, titled Titanic: 20th Anniversary, will premiere on the cable channel in December.

The documentary will key in on Cameron’s life during the making of the film, and will use new technology to analyze critical choices the helmer made during the production of the film. In addition, Titanic: 20th Anniversary will follow Cameron and other experts on the doomed ocean liner on a trip to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

In a statement, Cameron explained why he became involved in the documentary:

“When I wrote the film, and when I set out to direct it, I wanted every detail to be as accurate as I could make it, and every harrowing moment of the ship’s final hours accounted for. I was creating a living history; I had to get it right out of respect for the many who died and for their legacy. But did I really get it right? Now, with National Geographic and with the latest research, science and technology, I’m going to reassess.”

Clearly one of the more ambitious directors in recent Hollywood history (you have to remember, he’s not making one Avatar sequel, but four), Titanic: 20th Anniversary promises to give a fascinating look into Cameron’s risky project, which at the time cost a then-astounding $200 million to produce.

The film’s success not only cemented Cameron’s place in Hollywood history, it undoubtedly catapulted the careers of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to a whole new level. There’s no word yet whether DiCaprio or Winslet will participate in Titanic: 20th Anniversary (or for that matter, other cast members including Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Victor Garber or Kathy Bates), but for sure the classic romantic leads will have a presence in the documentary via footage from the 1997 film.

If DiCaprio chooses not to participate in Cameron’s Titanic anniversary documentary, the actor’s influence will still be all over NatGeo in another project. The cable channel announced Tuesday that DiCaprio is an executive producer on a new series based on the 1984 Oscar-winning drama The Right Stuff. DiCaprio’s return to NatGeo comes less than a year after he produced and narrated the global warming documentary Before the Flood for the channel.

Arrow season 6 is confirmed to include flashbacks for none other than Deathstroke. Fans who have watched the Arrow season 6 Comic-Con trailer for season 6 already knew that Deathstroke aka. Slade Wilson, played by Manu Bennett, is going to have a big presence in upcoming episodes this next season, but this update reveals that we will be learning more about the character’s past too.

For five seasons, flashbacks have been a big part of Arrow, as almost every episode explores another chapter in Oliver’s five-year absence from Star City. The creators of the show made it clear a long time ago that once that story was completed, the show would move on from that part of Oliver’s life – meaning that Arrow would either have to find new material for flashbacks, or abandon the format altogether. It had been suggested that more characters would have flashbacks in season 6 – and one such character that fans have indeed wanted to learn more about, is Bennett’s Slade Wilson.

Arrow executive producer Mark Guggenheim spoke to Cinema Blend at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, revealing how flashbacks will be handled in season 6. According to Guggenheim, flashbacks won’t appear in every episode, and when they do appear in an episode, they’ll be “character specific,” which isn’t too different than what has been done in the past whenever Oliver’s past isn’t the focus of an episode. Guggenheim also commented on what flashbacks will be featured:

As you saw in the trailer Manu Bennett is back for the season premiere and he’s also coming back for a special two-part episode in the first half of the season where we’re really going to be focusing hard on his character, post everything he’s experienced on the show and we intend to do a Slade Wilson flashback story.

Also known as Deathstroke, the character was introduced in season 1 but was only seen in flashbacks. Wilson later became “the big bad” of season 2 when a drug called Mirakuru enhanced his abilities and affected his judgment. After killing Oliver’s mother, it appeared that Wilson had reached the point-of-no-return, but Oliver refrained from killing him and had him locked away on the island of Lian Yu. Aside from an appearance in a single episode of season 3, the character remained inactive on the show until Oliver recruited him to help him save his son from Prometheus in the season 5 finale. Wilson, seemingly cured of Mirakuru, appears to be back on the side of the good guys. It remains to be seen if the character can be redeemed or forgiven for his actions in season 2.

As for what Wilson’s flashbacks could entail, the character’s life before meeting Oliver has been largely unexplored. It’s been stated that he worked as a special agent for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and also had a normal life as a father and husband.